The Cave of Font?chevade: Recent Excavations and their Paleoanthropological Impl [Hardcover]

Summary of recent Paleolithic excavations at Font?chevade, France, and their archaeological and paleontological implications.This book describes recent excavations at the Paleolithic site of Font?chevade, France. Modern field and analytic methods demonstrated that the Tayacian industry is a product of site formation processes and that the age of the Font?chevade I fossil is compatible with that of other modern humans in Europe.This book describes recent excavations at the Paleolithic site of Font?chevade, France. Modern field and analytic methods demonstrated that the Tayacian industry is a product of site formation processes and that the age of the Font?chevade I fossil is compatible with that of other modern humans in Europe.This book provides a summary of the discoveries made during the course of excavations at the Paleolithic cave site of Font?chevade, France, between 1994 and 1998. The excavation team used modern field and analytic methods to address major problems raised by earlier excavations at the site from 1937 to 1954. These earlier excavations produced two sets of data that have been problematic in light of data from other European Paleolithic sites: first, the Lower Paleolithic stone tool industry, the Tayacian, that differs in fundamental ways from other contemporary industries and, second, the human skull fragment that has been interpreted as modern in nature but that apparently dates from the last interglacial, long before there is any evidence for humans from any other site in Europe. By applying modern stratigraphic, lithic, faunal, geological, geophysical, and radiometric analyses, the interdisciplinary team demonstrates that the Tayacian industry is a product of site formation processes and that the actual age of the Font?chevade I fossil is compatible with other evidence for the arrival of modern humans in Europe.Part I. Introduction, Background, and Methodology Philip G. Chase, Andr? Deb?nath, Harold L. Dibble and Shannon P. McPherron: 1.lӈ